Even though Istanbul is bursting with people, action, commerce, and drama, I wanted to end these posts with images of calm. During our last full day, we pushed ourselves to shop, pack, and see a little of what we had missed in two months of living in Turkey. It was so hard to say goodbye to the city. We both wanted to revisit Rüstem Paşa Camii which we had seen in 1999. It is one of the smaller mosques designed by Mimar Sinan in the early 1560s. Alex remembered where it was, more or less. So, we walked in the general direction, took a few turns out of curiosity for other buildings and streets, and randomly ended on a downhill street. It was pretty narrow and crowded with merchants selling a variety of toys and plastic thingies. When we heard a police siren behind us, we backed up to the building to get out of the way. Then, we noticed everyone grabbing their stuff and scurrying behind doors (and we happened to be standing in front of a door, oops!) The police didn't stop or shout anything over the loudspeaker; they just drove slowly down the street. I guess they got the effect they wanted! As we approached the end of the street at the bottom of the hill, I glanced up to see the very mosque we had been looking for!
To get inside, we entered an arched stairwell that lead to a second floor courtyard above the market. Suddenly it was much calmer. In the courtyard, there was the guardian of the mosque and a couple of people who were leaving. Inside, we were the only people, and we sat there for a long time just to take in the beauty of the scene and the quiet of the place.
We knew we couldn't stay forever.
